Actually the real Leo Varadkar did stand up in the Dail last Tuesday
when his Sultan of Spin mask momentarily slipped allowing us a brief
glimpse of our Tory boy Taoiseach.

He said there’s no way he was going to sign a “blank cheque” for elderly
people who wanted extra heat in their homes during the snowstorms.

There may be sub-zero temperatures and 110kmh blizzards but there was
going to be no additional OAP fuel cash.

A few hours earlier his Minister for Older People Jim Daly advised
pensioners to keep their heating on all day if necessary during the cold
snap and not to worry about the bill. But Tory boy was having none of it
claiming “if we tell people [elderly folk]” they can keep their heating
on and the Government will pick up the bills it “will send out the wrong
message”.

It’s all about the message with Leo’s government that can’t build homes
for a few thousand people but can spend [euro]5 million annually on a spin
unit.

Within hours of the Taoiseach’s “let them freeze” speech the Social
Protection Minister said she was doubling the heating allowance to [euro]45
for the week of the cold spell.

It wasn’t that thoughts of our old folk shivering in front of a one-bar
electric fire pricked Fine Gael’s conscience, Leo’s spinners realised
his true Tory self had been exposed. This is one example of Mr
Varadkar’s spin doctors going to extraordinary lengths to ensure the
public sees only the good stuff.

The real role of the Strategic Communications Unit has been exposed in
recent days over promo articles in the Irish Independent, Irish Times
and many regional newspapers relating to the national development plan,
Project 2040.

What has been taking place is the government has been using taxpayers’
money and the Civil Service to promote Fine Gael and those who keep them
in power.

What Leo has created is the Strategic Propaganda Unit and it’s even been
using cinemas to target young people.

The Sunday Times has revealed the ad agency hired by the SCU sent out
instructions to the newspapers that the articles were to give the
impression they were “normal editorial”, in other words real objective
news stories.

This blatant attempt to hoodwink the public with an advert masquerading
as a real story praising the government paid for by the taxpayer and
facilitated by civil servants is pure propaganda.

What Leo would like is a highly-tuned lying machine that would brainwash
the public into believing life in this republic of inequality is not as
bad as it seems. This “if you repeat a lie often enough, people will
believe it” is a tried and technique used by some of the world’s most
successful dictators.

But how could people take seriously government plans to virtually
rebuild the country when the imbeciles behind them couldn’t construct a
few thousand homes during seven years in office?

Imagine the nonsense of gobshites, who preside over a health service
with almost 700,000 people on waiting lists, promising to build up to a
dozen new hospitals when the current ones are clogged with patients on
trolleys.

Leo would have us believe we are living in an egalitarian Shangri-la
when the reality is if you scratch the surface you’ll find a land where
up to a million workers live on wages and benefits that hardly keep
families alive.

If you look beyond the propaganda you see a republic of haves and
have-nots where ex-British solders are allowed to evict people from
their home on the orders of a vulture fund invited into the country by
Varadkar’s government.

The Taoiseach has a record when it comes to spin for didn’t he squander
hundreds of euro of taxpayers’ money on the bogus “Welfare Cheats Cheat
us All” campaign that helped win him the Fine Gael leadership?

The real Leo Varadkar was the one who stood up in the Dail last Tuesday
and the public would do well to remember that when his party comes
looking for votes in the near future.

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